29 (124).
*For Lenin.*

Geneva, November 20, 1902.

Dear Vladimir Ilyich,

Since you are remaining in Zurich for today, I have preferred to forward Nadezhdin's letter to you so that, having read my opinion and having discussed it with Axelrod, you might send your final judgment on this matter to London.

Nadezhdin's [Zelensky's]¹) letter is written impudently and stupidly. It shows that he felt very badly after my feuilleton.²) There is *no* calculation whatsoever for us in abusing him by printing his letter in our journal. Let him begin polemics with us in "Svoboda." I undertake to answer him without the crudities of which he could complain — to give him a thorough trouncing. He fell in with Stammler quite nicely. I shall not let him off the hook for that. *Find me a theme for "Iskra."* I shall write about the Chigirin affair one of these days, but it will be a small note.³)

Why not write a feuilleton about Tarasov's article (from the 3rd issue of the *Messenger of the Russian Revolution*)?⁴) If you think it worthwhile, *write it immediately.*

We have not yet had any battle with Chernov.

*I forgot to ask you to print in "Iskra" that 10 francs was handed to me in Liège at a meeting;* part of it was spent en route, and the rest I shall add to the local fund. The receipt should be noted thus: "from a *Peter Bourgeois* to Plekhanov in L[iège]."

Firm handshake.
Your G. P.

¹) Nadezhdin — a pseudonym of E. O. Zelensky — organizer and almost the sole contributor of the émigré publishing group "Svoboda." The group called itself "revolutionary-socialist," conducted polemics with "Iskra," and attempted to combine the tactics of social-democracy with the propaganda of individual terror (see on the "Svoboda" group Lenin's "What Is To Be Done?" *Collected Works*, vol. V, p. 115). The group published 2 issues of the journal "Svoboda," several pamphlets, as well as no. 1 of the journal "Otklik." The latter publication was almost entirely devoted to the split in the Petersburg organization and attacks on "Iskra." "Iskra" responded to this with the article "The Struggle of Tendencies — a Windfall for Demagogues." After the II Congress, Nadezhdin entered the R.S.-D.R.P., contributed to Menshevik publications, and died in emigration in 1905. On negotiations of "Iskra" with Nadezhdin in 1901, see "Lenin Sbornik" III, pp. 228–229.

²) A feuilleton by G. V. Plekhanov in no. 26 of "Iskra," "The Logic of Russian Terrorism," concerning Nadezhdin-Zelensky's pamphlet "The Resurgence of Revolutionism in Russia" and an article in the journal "Svoboda." (*Plekhanov. Works*, vol. XII, p. 255.)

³) The article "Mme. Breshkovskaya and the Chigirin Affair" in no. 38 of "Iskra." (*Plekhanov. Works*, vol. XII, p. 351.)

⁴) Tarasov's article (N. S. Rusanova — N. Kudrina), "The Evolution of Russian Socialist Thought" in no. 3 of the *Messenger of the Russian Revolution*, the organ of the Socialist-Revolutionary party. Plekhanov's intention to examine Tarasov's article was carried out, but not in the form of an article for "Iskra" (no such article appeared in "Iskra"), but rather in his preface to A. Tun's book *The History of Revolutionary Movements in Russia*, published in 1903 by the "Foreign League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy." Plekhanov's preface, which includes an analysis of Tarasov's article, is dated March 1903. In his work, Plekhanov, among other things, specifically pauses to examine those propositions of Tarasov which the latter directed against Lenin.